Punk activists lambast Vladimir Putin for cronyism and greed

Pussy Riot, or some faction thereof, have released a brand new song and music video, “Like a Red Prison.” According to various translations of the Russian punk shredder — via Los Angeles Times and Reuters, and the Pussy Riot website with an assist from Google — the song takes aim at President Vladimir Putin for alleged cronyism when it comes to the national oil industry. At one point, the women throw oil on enlarged photos of one of the leader’s longtime allies Igor Sechin, the former deputy prime minister and current executive chairman of the petroleum giant Rosneft.

A note on the group’s website identifies the song as “for group performance during the seizure of oil facilities,” which is exactly what takes place in the clip. The aforementioned politicians make their unplanned cameos whilst affixed to the pumping pistons that pull dino slop from the earth. Other scenes find Pussy Riot members climbing pipelines, scaling train cars, and rocking out atop a Rosneft gas station while workers watch bemused from the sidelines. They allege that a mere fraction of the trillions of rubles pulled in by that industry ever reach the Russian populace.

The song also attacks Putin’s alleged homophobia in regard to recent successfully passed legislation that banned the dissemination amongst minors of pro-gay “propaganda.” They also throw literal muck onto another stated enemy: Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, who the Pussy Riot website claims signed a warrant for the arrest of imprisoned group members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.